Richie Aprile

Richard "Richie" Aprile Sr. (1942-2000) was a capo of the DiMeo crime family and the older brother of acting boss Jackie Aprile Sr.. He was murdered during a domestic dispute in 2000.

Biogrpahy
Richie Aprile was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1942 to an Italian family, the older brother of Jackie Aprile Sr.. Aprile was known to be impulsively violent, callous, irascible, greedy, and narcissistic, and he served ten years in prison for crimes committed as a member of the DiMeo crime family. Upon his release in 2000, he found out that his brother died, and that Tony Soprano had become the new boss of the DiMeo family. The two men, formerly friends, became rivals due to Aprile's disappointment that Soprano was chosen to replace his brother as boss. Aprile proved to be uncontrollable in the business arena, paralyzing Peter Gaeta with his car, taking over Davey Scatino's stores, and getting into a relationship with Tony's sister Janice, who he used to date back in high school.

Aprile's hatred of Christopher Moltisanti led to up-and-coming associates Matthew Bevilacqua and Sean Gismonte attempting to kill Moltisanti in a drive-by shooting in an attempt to win Aprile's favor; Aprile did not sanction the hit, and he let the perpetrators be punished. However, his own wife encouraged him to stand up to Tony so that he would become the new boss, and Aprile approached Junior Soprano for assistance. Junior decided to support Aprile in becoming boss, but Aprile failed to win over Albert Barrese. Junior weighed his options and realized that he was better off with Tony as boss, so he told Tony about Aprile's planned coup.

Death
Tony Soprano decided to send his trusted enforcer Silvio Dante to murder Aprile for his betrayal. However, this would prove unnecessary. After returning home one night, Richie and Janice got into an argument over Richie's son, a ballroom dancer, possibly being a homosexual. Janice replied that it would not matter if he was gay, leading to a furious Richie punching her in the face and ordering her to make dinner for him. A distraught Janice retrieved Richie's gun and shot him twice, killing him. Tony Soprano had Christopher Moltisanti and Furio Giunta dismember Aprile's corpse and send Janice off to Seattle to lie low.